'Paul was fun': Remembering snooker's departed star 20 years on.

All the young snooker player ever wanted to do was play snooker.

A love for the game, developed at the tender age of three with the help of a small snooker set on his family's living room table in his Leeds home, would result in a life on the tour that saw him win half a dozen major wins in half a dozen years.

Now marks a score of years since the popular Hunter succumbed to cancer, days short to his twenty-eighth birthday.

But in spite of the passing of a generational talent that transcended the game he loved, his enduring mark on the sport and those who were close to him persist as strong as ever.

'He just loved it': A Childhood Obsession

"We'd never have known in a billion years Paul would become a pro on the circuit," Hunter's mum says.

"Yet he just was passionate about it."

Alan Hunter recalls how his son "cared little for anything else" other than snooker as a young boy.

"He was relentless," he notes. "He would play every night after school."

After repeatedly pleading with his dad to take him to a nearby hall to play on regulation tables at the age of eight, the aspiring talent made the leap from home play with remarkable ease.

His raw skill would be nurtured by the snooker legend Joe Johnson, from the adjacent city, at a now defunct club in the area of Yeadon.

Quick Success: The Path to Glory

With his mother and father's requests to do his homework increasingly falling on deaf ears as training came first, his parents took the "gamble" of taking Hunter out of school at the age of 14 to fully dedicate himself to forging a career in the game.

It proved a masterstroke. Within five years, their still-teenage son had won his first ranking title, the Welsh Open of 1998.

Considered one of snooker's most difficult competitions to win because of the involvement of exclusively the best, Hunter triumphed a trio of times, in 2001, 2002 and 2004.

'A Gracious Competitor': His Enduring Personality

But for all his success on the table, away from the game Hunter's down-to-earth charisma never deserted him.

"He had a great temperament did Paul," Alan says. "He was liked by everybody."

"If you met him you'd enjoy his company," Kristina continues. "He brought joy. He'd make you comfortable."

Hunter's widow Lindsey, with whom he had daughter Evie, describes him as an "incredible, lively, and kind spirit" who was "funny, kind" and "always the last to leave the party".

With his effortless appeal, boyish good looks and honest interview style, not to mention his immense skill, Hunter quickly became snooker's leading figure for the modern era.

No wonder then, that he was christened 'The Snooker World's Beckham'.

Courage in Crisis: Illness and Resilience

In the mid-2000s, a year that should have been the peak of his powers, Hunter was found to have cancer and would later undergo cancer therapy.

Multiple accounts from across the sporting world highlight the man's extraordinary dedication to honor obligations to charity matches, tournaments, and media duties, all while undergoing treatment.

Despite harsh reactions, Hunter played on through the illness and received a rapturous applause at The famous Sheffield venue when he played at the World Championships that year.

When he succumbed in the mid-2000s, snooker's family-like circuit lost one of its most popular brothers.

"The pain is immense," Kristina says. "No parent should experience any mum and dad to lose a child."

An Enduring Legacy: Giving Back

Hunter's true impact would be felt not in high society but in snooker halls and clubs across the UK.

The Paul Hunter Foundation, set up before his death, would provide no-cost coaching to young people all over the country.

The scheme was so successful that, according to reports, issues with young people in some areas dropped significantly.

"The goal was for a platform to help provide a positive outlet," one organizer said.

The Foundation helped lay the groundwork for a major coaching programme, which has extended playing opportunities to children internationally.

"He would have embraced what we've done with the sport and where it is today," a chairman in the sport stated.

Forever in Memory: Two Decades On

Archive videos of their son's matches online help his parents stay "connected to him".

"I can bring it up and I can watch Paul anytime," Kristina says. "It's wonderful!"

"We are happy to speak about Paul," she continues. "At first it was sad, but I'd rather somebody remember him than him not be mentioned at all."

Although he never won the World Championship, the highly probable notion that Hunter would have gone on to lift snooker's greatest prize is a part of the sport's folklore.

The Masters, the competition with which he is most synonymous, starts later this month. The winner will lift the trophy named in his honor.

But for all his accomplishments, a generation after his death it is Paul Hunter's personality, as much his spectacular skill with a cue, that will ensure he is forever celebrated.